Consumers' choice of dentist: how and why people choose dental school faculty as their oral care provider

Consumers' choice of dentist: how and why people choose dental school faculty as their oral care provider." MS and my parents who endured sacrifices and greatly supported my personal and professional growth with everlasting love and dedication iii Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. Psalm 126:5 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge my thesis supervisor, Dr. Jed Hand, for his guidance and advice throughout the process of this project: from the conception to the completion. He has been a tremendous help and a great mentor in this learning process. I also want to thank my committee members. Dr. Damiano has actively helped me to learn how to conceptually design the project, draft my first survey instrument, and approach a research project in general. Drs. Cobb and Denehy were supportive of me pursuing this project for my M.S. in Operative Dentistry from the beginning till the end and always brought fresh perspectives. All my committee members inspired me to make it better with input from their years of experience. People at the College of Dentistry helped me a lot also to the accomplishment of this project. Dental Informatics and Clinic Administration staff helped me to identify my survey population and implement the survey. Dr. Fang Qian, my statistics consultant, helped me with statistically analyses and interpretations. Without those mentioned above and those who missed here but helped me, this project could not be accomplished. My sincere gratitude from bottom of my heart goes to all those who helped me. INTRODUCTION Research question and its significance Recent years have brought about many challenges to dental school financing in the U.S. Historically dental schools have depended on outside funding sources such as government appropriations and tuition to fulfill their mission of education, patient care, and research. As of 2008 thirty-six out of fifty-six dental schools in the U.S. received state support. However, since 1991 the state support has not increased sufficiently to keep up with inflation which has led to a 45 percent purchasing power decrease. In addition, the proportion of total dental school revenue funded by states has declined from 601288), economic conditions since 2000 have significantly impacted the availability of government funding. On the other hand, private dental schools have depended heavily on student tuition, which represented 48 percent of the total revenue in 2004-2005 (Bailit 2008, 14-17). Although these private schools are not affected …